Chapter Nine: A Hunt for the Informant
The potion frothed, sparks flying out of the boiling cauldron as Harish added the last ingredient. Instantly, the potion changed colors, resembling molten copper. The young man then picked up his enormous book and began reading the incantation aloud, while waving his wand above the cauldron in circles. Billows of fog rolled over the cauldron's rim and onto the table as the potion cooled.
Then, Harish took a glass vial and ladled some of the potion into it. It was cold, though it was not completely frozen. Harish raised the vial to his lips and swallowed the potion. Despite it feeling cold to the touch, it was warm as it slid down his throat and it tasted metallic.
Harish then grabbed Fred and George by the elbows and Disapparated. They experienced the usual sensation of being squeezed through a rubber tube, and minutes later their feet hit the ground.
Harish glanced around, blinking against the sudden sunlight. They were standing on an dusty, dirt road. Nothing else was nearby except for an old warehouse that was a good ways away from them. All around were brown fields and bare trees.
Harish glanced around and said aloud, "This road must dump off on a Muggle highway somewhere."
"Where are we supposed to be looking?" George asked.
"There's nothing out here," Fred finished for him.
"We might as well try that warehouse," Harish reasoned, pointing to it.
They walked forward, and Harish paused after he had made it a few feet.
"There's an anti-apparition ward," Harish stated.
"How do you know?" both twins queried.
"My father's been training me on recognizing magical signatures," Harish replied simply, before continuing in silence.
He led them all the way up to the door of the warehouse, which was locked and had a rusted padlock on the handle. Harish wordlessly cast a spell that unlocked the padlock, which opened with the most painful screech that had assaulted Harish's ears. Then, the old, metal door opened with a groan.
"Well come on, then," Harish said quietly after a moment of hesitation—there was no telling what they would find inside that warehouse.
Once inside, it took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the lighting; other than sunlight streaming in through two windows that were high above them, the warehouse was dark. It was the perfect image of abandonment—there were no shelves, no people, no sign that it had been used in years. There were only a few overturned boxes in the corners of the building and dust flying in the air, visible in the bleak streams of winter sunlight.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Fred asked, looking around.
"We could have brewed the potion incorrectly," George added.
"No," Harish said, wiping a hand across the floor. "If no one has truly been here in years, then why isn't there dust on the floor? Something isn't right about this place…Plus, why would there be an anti-apparition ward on a random warehouse in the middle of nowhere?"
Neither twin answered.
Harish walked around the warehouse, his footsteps echoing off of the metal walls. Then, once he reached the back wall, he stopped. Rubbing a hand across the wall, he muttered, "I can feel a magical signature here." He turned to the twins, who were still standing back towards the door. "If someone is not here now, they were here once." The young man turned back to the wall and muttered, this time to himself, "Now let me just see…"
He waved his wand and jumped back as the floor underneath him began to quake. He silently motioned the twins over and watched as the stone where he had just been standing slid to the side to reveal a concrete staircase, even darker than the warehouse they were standing in.
When the twins had both made it over to where he was standing, he whispered, "I'm going down there. I need someone to come with me and help me search. Whoever's left needs to stand guard out here."
Fred and George both looked at each other as Harish starting climbing down the staircase.
"I'm not staying out here by myself," George said shortly before making his way to follow Harish.
"Of course," Fred muttered to himself as George's footsteps faded away. "Leave the less Slytherin twin to guard an entrance to a secret bunker by himself…I see how it is…"
Once he got to the bottom of the stairs, and his eyes once again adjusted to the darkness, George saw that Harish had paused a few feet ahead of him. George quickly hastened to catch up and whispered, "So, what now?"
"I'll look in the rooms on the left," the boy replied. "You look in the rooms on the right."
"By myself?" George squeaked.
"Yes," Harish whispered exasperatedly with a roll of his eyes, "by yourself."
And with that he turned to the left and went through the closest door.
Honestly, Harish was just as scared as George was. He breathed heavily as he lit his wand and made sure that the room (which had previously been pitch black) was completely empty. This bunker was almost identical to the one that Harish had spent time in when he was about seven. It seemed like ages ago by then. Instead of having been captured, Harish was the one doing the capturing…Yes, much had certainly changed.
After Harish had determined that the room was indeed empty, he exited and went back out into the torch-lit corridor. There, he found George, still standing where he had left him.
"Have you been standing here the entire time?" Harish asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No," George replied. "I just came back out," he pointed lamely to the door across from Harish's.
Harish shook his head as George walked slowly over to the next door on the right-hand side. Then, they both froze at the sound of a thump overhead.
"That would be Fred," Harish whispered.
George nodded.
There was another thump and a shout.
"Or maybe not!" Harish exclaimed, running back to the staircase with George hot on his heels.
The two eighteen-year-olds stopped where their eyes were just above the floor of the warehouse, not wanting to immediately attract attention to themselves before they could assess the situation. There, they saw Fred in a scuffle for the exact person they had tracked down—Jugson.
It seemed that they had completely forgotten about their wands, as Fred was behind Jugson, holding him in a chokehold.
"Harish!" Fred shouted. "I got him!"
Seeing a good chance to show himself, Harish ran up the rest of the steps and drew his wand. But Jugson was faster. He drew his wand in an instant, and in the next, Fred was sprawled on the ground with Jugson standing over him.
"Expelliarmus!" Harish exclaimed, deciding to start low in the hopes of catching Jugson off his guard.
Jugson blocked it with a shield, and Harish ducked as the spell whizzed back towards him. Jugson quickly sent out a trip jinx that left both Harish and George lying on the floor as well. Harish looked up to see Jugson scrambling to the other end of the warehouse, undoubtedly planning on Disapparating once he got outside the wards.
But Harish leapt to his feet and waved his wand. The door to the warehouse, which they had left open in their fear of what they would find inside, slammed shut and there was a clang as the padlock locked itself. Jugson rattled on the door and just as he was pulling his wand out to unlock the door, Harish sent out a stinging jinx.
Jugson's wand clattered to the floor, as he hissed in pain and gripped his wand hand. Then, the wand began to slide across the floor towards Harish as he wordlessly summoned it.
Desperately, Jugson threw himself onto the floor and caught onto his wand, only to be dragged towards Harish as well. Harish released the spell as soon as he realized he was dragging Jugson towards him.
The former Death Eater then stood and eyed Harish warily with his wand raised. He knew that Harish would be much more powerful since the last time he had seen him; it had been several years of course. And even then, Harish had been a good match for him. If it hadn't been for the convenient placing of the staircase Jugson had caused him to fall down, he might have even beaten the older man. Jugson was only too aware that he was duelling the Dark Lord's son—one of the most powerful wizards of the age.
"You aren't going to run from me again, are you, Jugson?" the devil child asked with a small smile curling his lips.
Jugson raised his wand a little higher and took a step back. Harish's laughter echoed throughout the warehouse.
"Incarcerous!" Harish cried.
Jugson dropped to his stomach and rolled to avoid the ropes that shot out of Harish's wand. Then, he fired off a blasting curse. Harish swished his wand and a chunk of the floor rose and exploded on impact. Impatiently, Harish banished the smoke and dust to discover that Jugson had used the distraction to make it out of the door.
Harish cursed and ran after him as George went to his brother to see if he could get him onto his feet again. As soon as he cleared the door, Harish sent off a volley of spells:
"Stupefy, Incarcerous, Locomotor Wibbly!"
Jugson stopped the stunning spell and the jelly legs jinx with a shield, but the ropes grabbed him by the ankles and he fell to the ground hard. The first thing he did was reach for his wand, but when he realized it had fallen out of his reach, he tried pulling on the cords that were around his ankles.
Harish shot out more cords, which wrapped around the man's chest, binding his arms to his sides. The young man hurried forward, picked up Jugson's wand, and stuffed it in his pocket. Then, he pulled Jugson up by his hair.
"Who do you work for? Why did they try to kill me?"
Jugson began to laugh insanely.
"Still gnawing on that bone, are you?" he asked. "Well you won't find out from me!"
Harish dropped him to the ground with a look of disgust on his face and kicked him hard enough to knock him out. Seconds later, the twins joined him.
"Ready to go?" Harish asked. They nodded. "Then come on."
He levitated Jugson and the three of them walked to where they could Apparate. There, they disappeared with a crack.